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by banerries



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-04
Updated: 2015-07-04
Packaged: 2018-04-07 15:57:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4269360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/banerries/pseuds/banerries
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For Zuko, there were two ways that this could end. For Azula, there was only one.</p>
            </blockquote>





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**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in 2009, as a "what if?" alternative to Azula's canon takedown. I've made minor grammar edits and changed around one section a little bit (it was originally written to fit into the timeline of a panfandom RP on Livejournal, so mostly I just had to remove the references to characters from other fandoms), but everything else was left as-is. The original can be found [here](http://ddd-prompts.livejournal.com/50989.html).

_Do you know how you got your name?_

 She knew. She had always known.

_You were named after your grandfather._

Her father's side of the family had been imprinted on her from the day she was born. She wore it like clothing; like the crown in her topknot. Her mother's side barely mattered. That was where the traitors came from. She knew _exactly_ who she was— where she had come from, and where she would go. There had never been any question as to what she was going to be, so it was a good thing that she wanted it.

_Your grandfather was Azulon, son of Fire Lord Sozin and one of the greatest Fire Lords of our time. You'll be like him someday._

But he had been a fool— a weak, _pathetic_ fool, in the end. He had died at the hands of her mother, to save someone whose life wasn't worth saving. She would not go the same way. At nine years old, after seeing all the pain and chaos and setbacks caused by things like parental devotion and "beloved sons", she had made herself two promises: that she would never surrender, and that she would never die by a family member's hand.

In the end, she only broke one.

Zuko didn't even do it on purpose-- it was a normal battle, like any of the countless others that they had had before. The change came when in the heat of it, they locked eyes, and Zuko realized (for perhaps the first time) that she wasn't ever going to go quietly. 

He had gotten better. Not better than her, but good enough. The fact that his lightning strike hit her in just the right spot was pure luck (it turned out that the one born with it got to die by it, too). He looked just as surprised as she did when she fell.

_Your grandfather was Azulon, son of Fire Lord Sozin and one of the greatest Fire Lords of our time. You'll be like him someday._

Death was loud. Words and voices filled her head— things she had heard and remembered, but never fully listened to. _“I’m happy here, and my aura has never been pinker.” “Those summers we spent here seem so long ago; so much has changed.”_ “ _I love Zuko more than I fear you.”_ She hadn't understood at the time, and in a way she still didn't, but she supposed it didn't really matter now. Whatever it was, it was a change from legacies and expectations and inheritance— a change from everything that she had always known and loved. They’d been clues to what was coming, and maybe if she had paid more attention, she could have prevented this— but she hadn’t, and that was that. She didn’t believe in regret.

_You were named after your grandfather._

She couldn't see Zuko anymore. She didn't know if he was even still there. A different sort of person might have cried; might have wished for one more chance to do things differently. But there was a reason for this. She knew why she was here. Death before surrender. Now _go_.

_Do you know how you got your name?_


End file.
